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Obama pardons coin mutilator.....

relicsncoinsrelicsncoins Posts: 7,859 ✭✭✭✭✭
"WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has granted the first pardons of his presidency, to nine people convicted of crimes including possessing drugs, counterfeiting and even mutilating coins.

No one well-known was on the list, and some of the crimes dated back decades or had drawn little more than a slap on the wrist in the first place — such as the Pennsylvania man sentenced in 1963 to probation and a $20 fine for mutilating coins. The White House didn't explain the charge, but tampering with federal currency is a crime."



Wow, who knew that all of the elongated cents were a crime. image



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    Glad to see he's taking the time to tackle the big issues facing the nation right now.

    Good grief.
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    ManorcourtmanManorcourtman Posts: 7,900 ✭✭✭✭
    I detect an ugly thread aheadimage
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    dbldie55dbldie55 Posts: 7,719 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Glad to see he's taking the time to tackle the big issues facing the nation right now.

    Good grief. >>



    He has caused most of them. I would prefer he spends his time looking for petty cases to pardon.
    Collector and Researcher of Liberty Head Nickels. ANA LM-6053
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    MsMorrisineMsMorrisine Posts: 32,203 ✭✭✭✭✭
    ugly thread?

    mutilating coins in 1963?


    what makes you think this thread will go astray? image
    Current maintainer of Stone's Master List of Favorite Websites // My BST transactions
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    Dog97Dog97 Posts: 7,875 ✭✭✭
    That proves that prison works and the criminals got rehabilated and turned their lives around and became productive members of society and redeemed themselves!
    Just saying, I'm grasping at straws here trying not to say smoething politically negative.
    Change that we can believe in is that change which is 90% silver.
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    coindeucecoindeuce Posts: 13,471 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Wow. I peed on a Federal Register Historic Landmark sign when I was a kid. Glad I didn't get caught. My neck hurts though from looking over my shoulder all of these years.imageimage

    "Everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything." - George Malley, Phenomenon
    http://www.americanlegacycoins.com

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    WillieBoyd2WillieBoyd2 Posts: 5,036 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I looked but can not find out anything about what Ronald Lee Foster did to coins.

    I wonder if he is the first person to produce the infamous "Lincoln looks at Kennedy" pennies?

    There was a guy back in the 1960's who used a machine to shave pennies to the size of dimes
    and passed them in vending machines.

    Ronald Lee Foster is about to get his fifteen minutes of fame.

    image
    https://www.brianrxm.com
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    RussRuss Posts: 48,515 ✭✭✭
    Is this a copy/paste from The Onion?

    Russ, NCNE
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    relicsncoinsrelicsncoins Posts: 7,859 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Is this a copy/paste from The Onion?

    Russ, NCNE >>



    Nope, Drudge.
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    WillieBoyd2WillieBoyd2 Posts: 5,036 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It is not a joke.

    The pardons are being reported on CNN News and other major news sites.

    image
    https://www.brianrxm.com
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    RussRuss Posts: 48,515 ✭✭✭
    Wow. Sure sounds like the kind of satire the Onion would do.

    Russ, NCNE
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    GoldbullyGoldbully Posts: 16,862 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Is this a copy/paste from The Onion?

    Russ, NCNE >>



    "Coin mutilator!"
    image
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    RichieURichRichieURich Posts: 8,371 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>It is not a joke.

    The pardons are being reported on CNN News and other major news sites.

    image >>



    I can't wait for the pardons to come through for the people who tore the "Do Not Remove This Tag" tags off of sofas and chairs!imageimageimage

    An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.

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    ArizonaJackArizonaJack Posts: 4,029 ✭✭✭
    +1 with a smile
    " YOU SUCK " Awarded 5/18/08
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    WoodenJeffersonWoodenJefferson Posts: 6,491 ✭✭✭✭
    I did not put that penny on the RR track back in 1963, it was my friend Jim, I just found it for him, I picked it and gave it back to Jim, that's how my prints got on there.
    Chat Board Lingo

    "Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen
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    WillieBoyd2WillieBoyd2 Posts: 5,036 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ronald Lee Foster,

    You have calls from Oprah Winfrey, Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric

    image
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    GoldbullyGoldbully Posts: 16,862 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Ronald Lee Foster,

    You have calls from Oprah Winfrey, Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric

    image >>



    You LEFT out Matt Lauer!!! image
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    Apparantly 4 or 5 of the others pardoned are convicted coke dealers image
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    19Lyds19Lyds Posts: 26,472 ✭✭✭✭
    You wanna provide a link there buddy?
    I decided to change calling the bathroom the John and renamed it the Jim. I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning.



    The name is LEE!
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    GoldbullyGoldbully Posts: 16,862 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>You wanna provide a link there buddy? >>



    Right Cheer, Buddy!!!! image

    By Jared A. Favole and Jamila Trindle
    Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
    WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--President Barack Obama chose to bless people convicted of mutilating coins, using cocaine and writing bad checks with his first presidential pardons.

    In all, Obama pardoned nine people Friday for crimes dating as far back as the 1960s. Those pardoned had been sentenced to as little as one year of probation to up two years in confinement. Fines and damages for the offenders ranged from as little as $20 to $71,000.

    When asked why Obama chose the group for his first pardons, Reid Cherlin, a spokesman for the White House, said, "The president was moved by the strength of the applicants' post-conviction efforts at atonement, as well as their superior citizenship and individual achievements in the years since their convictions."

    Ronald Lee Foster of Beaver Falls, Pa., was among those pardoned. He was sentenced in North Carolina in 1963 to one year of probation and a $20 fine for "Mutilation of coins." The statute he was charged under says it's unlawful to, among other things, alter, deface, mutilate, impair, diminish, falsify, scale or lighten any U.S. coins.

    Edgar Leopold Kranz Jr. of Minot, N.D. in 1994 was suspended, had his pay decreased and received two years of confinement for "wrongful use of cocaine, adultery and writing three insufficient fund checks," according to a White House press release. Kranz was charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which states that military personnel can be prosecuted for conduct that brings discredit upon the armed forces.

    Obama also pardoned one Laurens Dorsey of Syracuse, N.Y. Dorsey was known as an ambassador for the state's apples because he introduced the King and Queen of Sweden to New York's empire apples during a 1988 visit, according to Syracuse Newspapers.

    Dorsey was pardoned for conspiracy to defraud the United States by making false statements to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The sentence for his offense: five years of probation and $71,000 restitution in 1998 in New Jersey. Dorsey pleaded guilty to allowing his import-export company, Syrex, to be used in a cargo diversion scheme to divert exported goods back to the U.S. for sale, according to Business News New Jersey at the time.

    Pardoning nine people may help dispel criticism that Obama is too stingy toward homo sapiens with his pardoning powers. Obama has pardoned several turkeys as part of a White House Thanksgiving tradition.

    Pardons can land presidents in hot water. In his last day in office, former President Bill Clinton set off a firestorm when he pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich, whose ex-wife had donated to the Clinton Presidential Library. Congress launched investigations into the pardon. Perhaps most notorious of all, President Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon, who had resigned about a month earlier amid the Watergate scandal in 1974. The political fallout from the pardon dogged Ford for the remainder of his term in office.

    A pardon is an exemption from punishment and can't be reversed. People have to apply to be pardoned. Obama has received 551 pardon requests since he took office, according Department of Justice statistics. He has, so far, denied 131.

    Former President George W. Bush, during his eight years in office, received 2,489 pardon requests. He granted 189.

    Franklin D. Roosevelt granted the most pardons. From 1933 to 1945, he pardoned 2,819 people, according to Department of Justice statistics.

    -By Jared A. Favole, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256; jared.favole@dowjones.com

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    << <i>You wanna provide a link there buddy? >>



    pardoned by name

    A counterfeiter too
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    BigEBigE Posts: 6,949 ✭✭✭
    Good thing they caught him before he became a cereal coin mutilator, and started stealing Cheerios-----------BigE
    I'm glad I am a Tree
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    Wasn't there something..a coin in 08 with Obama on it ? I can't remember exactly what it was but i seem to remember it was an ordinary coin but his image on it somehow , colorized if i remember right.I wondered what the difference is between mutilating a coin and what was done in 08.
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    DNADaveDNADave Posts: 7,239 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The guy over on the PM better think again before drilling that gold buffalo !

    image
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    WillieBoyd2WillieBoyd2 Posts: 5,036 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Attention: Daniel Carr

    image
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    coindeucecoindeuce Posts: 13,471 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'll wager that Presidential counsel accrued thousands of billable hours to the taxpayers for this stroke of genius.

    "Everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything." - George Malley, Phenomenon
    http://www.americanlegacycoins.com

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    botanistbotanist Posts: 524 ✭✭✭
    What about all the hobo nickel artists, isn't that criminal activity?
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    NotSureNotSure Posts: 2,978 ✭✭✭
    The counterfeiter, Scoey Lathaniel Morris, obviously wasn't aware that image.


    (borrowed from Saor Alba's sig line)
    I'll come up with something.
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    image

    It's not the US Mint , how does a candidate get permission for this or is it just a company cashing in ? Either way , it's not US mint so ....
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    WillieBoyd2WillieBoyd2 Posts: 5,036 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The CNN Article now has details of the crime:

    For 42 years, Ronald Foster didn't know he had a felony conviction for
    cutting up pennies.

    In 1963, he was earning $82 a month as a Marine at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina,
    when he says he and 16 others hatched a scheme to cut pennies into dimes so they
    could use them in vending machines.

    But the Secret Service caught them. They were marched into a courtroom on base,
    where his commanding officer entered a plea on their behalf to mutilation of
    coins, he says.

    Then, in 2005, he applied for a gun permit and found out for the first time he
    had a felony conviction. He applied for a presidential pardon, which was
    officially granted Friday, in the first round of pardons during Obama's
    administration.

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/12/03/obama.pardons/index.html?hpt=T2

    Hey, I'm psychic.

    The CNN article first only gave the man's name and his crime as "mutilation of coins",
    but no details. I guessed earlier that it had to do with altering pennies to pass as dimes,
    because of a case I read about as a kid (not this one).

    The CNN article was later revised with details of the "crime".

    image
    https://www.brianrxm.com
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    Gw liked to pardon folks like Henry Lee Lucas , fair enough he was only governer then but it's never really been explained why.
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    Did he pardon Congress or the US dollar yet? image
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    dcarrdcarr Posts: 8,000 ✭✭✭✭✭
    So basically, he stole from vending machine owners.

    The crime wasn't "mutilating pennies", it was fraudulently passing them as dimes.
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    relicsncoinsrelicsncoins Posts: 7,859 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>So basically, he stole from vending machine owners.

    The crime wasn't "mutiliating pennies", it was fraudulently passing them as dimes. >>



    Exactly, there is no crime against defacing U.S. coinage. I believe the crime is when you deface coins to committ fraud. Such as gold plating an 1883 Nickel to pass it as $5 gold piece.
    Need a Barber Half with ANACS photo certificate. If you have one for sale please PM me. Current Ebay auctions
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    "what are you in for?" "Numismatic mutilation!"
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    sinin1sinin1 Posts: 7,500
    image


    mutilation or beautification



    anything happen to those silver surf quarter movie people?


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    << <i>Glad to see he's taking the time to tackle the big issues facing the nation right now.

    Good grief. >>



    lol
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    PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 45,418 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>So basically, he stole from vending machine owners.

    The crime wasn't "mutilating pennies", it was fraudulently passing them as dimes. >>



    ...............without first stamping "COPY" on them.image

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.

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    steelieleesteelielee Posts: 1,143 ✭✭✭
    Don't leave Matt out, we want to make sure all the hard news guys are in......
    ************************************

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    thebeavthebeav Posts: 3,753 ✭✭✭✭✭
    This doesn't sound pardonable.......
    He committed a crime, live with it. There was no mistake, he stole.....
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    EagleEyeEagleEye Posts: 7,676 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I am suprized the title of the thread isn't "Obama pardons Coin Doctor".
    Rick Snow, Eagle Eye Rare Coins, Inc.Check out my new web site:
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    << <i>Wow. Sure sounds like the kind of satire the Onion would do.

    Russ, NCNE >>



    Ha! You can't make this stuff upimage
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    MsMorrisineMsMorrisine Posts: 32,203 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>This doesn't sound pardonable.......
    He committed a crime, live with it. There was no mistake, he stole..... >>




    to pardon somene, they first have to be convicted.



    Then, in 2005, he applied for a gun permit and found out for the first time he had a felony conviction. He applied for a presidential pardon, which was officially granted Friday, in the first round of pardons during Obama's administration.



    Current maintainer of Stone's Master List of Favorite Websites // My BST transactions
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    CoinspongeCoinsponge Posts: 3,927 ✭✭✭
    This gets me wondering if a President can pardon himself.
    Gold and silver are valuable but wisdom is priceless.
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    The Presidential pardons are an annual tradition. Obama isn't doing anything peculiar or new in issuing a round of pardons. This particular story just stood out to the press as something rather quirky and attention-catching.

    Squashing pennies into elongated souvenirs isn't illegal, because the coin is being pulled out of circulation. Cutting a penny so that a vending machine "thinks" it is a dime is, because it's creating a counterfeit dime. Counterfeiting happens to be a Federal crime and a felony, but the scale of this particular incident, and that it was someone who was otherwise serving our country in the armed forces, perhaps made him deserving of a pardon. Even though the time was served and the penalty paid, a felony conviction takes away voting rights as well as other rights, hence the gun permit issue. The pardon gives him back those rights, so he can get summoned for jury duty like the rest of us.
    Improperly Cleaned, Our passion for numismatics is Genuine! Now featuring correct spelling.
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    grote15grote15 Posts: 29,521 ✭✭✭✭✭
    90% of all pardons are on the same level as these...nothing new here for decades.

    Would rather see some of the AT coin doctors convicted in the first place, instead, LOL.


    Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
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    Type2Type2 Posts: 13,985 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I need to stop this.


    image


    Hoard the keys.
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    goodmoney4badmoneygoodmoney4badmoney Posts: 1,126 ✭✭✭✭


    << <i>The Presidential pardons are an annual tradition. Obama isn't doing anything peculiar or new in issuing a round of pardons. This particular story just stood out to the press as something rather quirky and attention-catching.

    Squashing pennies into elongated souvenirs isn't illegal, because the coin is being pulled out of circulation. Cutting a penny so that a vending machine "thinks" it is a dime is, because it's creating a counterfeit dime. Counterfeiting happens to be a Federal crime and a felony, but the scale of this particular incident, and that it was someone who was otherwise serving our country in the armed forces, perhaps made him deserving of a pardon. Even though the time was served and the penalty paid, a felony conviction takes away voting rights as well as other rights, hence the gun permit issue. The pardon gives him back those rights, so he can get summoned for jury duty like the rest of us. >>



    Just an FYI... voting rights for felons vary by state. Some states even allow a felon to vote while in prison. Just because you are a felon does not necessarily mean you can't vote.
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    ecichlidecichlid Posts: 1,212 ✭✭✭


    << <i>I need to stop this.


    image >>





    You just cut a coin with a DDR! image






























































































    image
    There is no "AT" or "NT". We only have "market acceptable" or "not market acceptable.
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    I am very proud, someone from my home town received a presidential pardon, how many forum members can make that statement? image
    By the way, who can name the famous person from Beaver Falls that the home town folks are actually proud of?

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